Lutheran Peace Fellowship

Youth E-News: Sowing Seeds of Peace
"And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace" - James 3:18

May 18, 2007
A Publication of Lutheran Peace Fellowship
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Welcome

At the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, 189 Heads of Government pledged to end poverty by 2015. They signed the Millennium Declaration, promising to "free men, women and children from the dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty," committing developed and developing countries alike to eight Millennium Development Goals. These goals include:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce Child Mortality
5. Improve Maternal Health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Create a Global Partnership for Development with targets on aid, debt and trade.
   

As Christians, Jesus has called us to welcome the oppressed and hungry with respect and compassion, just as we would welcome Jesus. As Jesus said in Matthew 25, "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me…just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me."

In a world with so much wealth, global poverty is preventable, but we must work together. Through events like info fairs on the Millennium Development Goals, worship services, and workshops, we can help learn more and spread the word. Jesus calls us not only to learn, but to act, and we can act through traditional means such as letter writing campaigns, but also through creating works of art, music, and writing; organizing concerts to support the Goals; or bicycling across the country.

The Millennium Development Goals can become a reality, but to do so we need to join in and take action to welcome our impoverished sisters and brothers to a respected place at the table. As Christians, we are called to see Jesus in the face of each hungry person, and so to welcome and provide for those who hunger as we would provide for Jesus himself.

–Allyson Fredericksen, LPF Youth Trainer and Program Coordinator

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for future issues, e-mail me at lpfyouth@gmail.com. Also, if you are on myspace, join our myspace group at www.groups.myspace.com/lutheranpeace

For more on the Millennium Development Goals and what you an do to act, visit the following links:

www.millenniumcampaign.org

www.one.org

www.elca.org/advocacy

www.bread.org

www.undp.org

Issue Highlights:

- Workshops Available – Bring Peace and Justice to your community!

- News Articles on Peace and Justice – Get the latest on issues of peace and justice around the globe!

- Advocacy Alerts – The ONE Campaign, Darfur, and Making Work Work!

- Community News – Millennium Development Goals Fair, Pentecost 2007, and more!

- Spiritual Reflection – More Than Random Acts of Kindness!

Workshops Available!

Are you interested in hosting an LPF workshop? This year, we are offering workshops on the following:

- Cycles of Violence and Nonviolence
- Christian Peacemaking
- From Violence to Wholeness
- Hunger and Conflict
- How to Be a Bridge in a World Full of Walls
- Breaking the Silence: A Christian Response to Domestic Abuse
- Leadership Training for Peacemakers

Each workshop is highly participatory and activity-based, helping participants gain insight by doing, not only by hearing or reading. We can also help your group plan and lead successful activities or workshops on these and other topics. If you or someone you know are interested, email me at lpfyouth@gmail.com or call the LPF office at 206-720-0313.

News Articles on Peace and Justice

Hunger's Global Hotspots: Ten countries where violence persists and populations live in fear. People in Hunger's Global Hotspots don't know what tomorrow will bring and they often have to rely on WFP for their next meal. For more on this, visit http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/WFP/5546c831f2dd924eabd27084e7385532.htm

"Get Real" and Save Indian Youth from AIDS – Official: Six states in India , which has the most people living with HIV/AIDS in the world, have banned sex education for adolescents or refused to implement the curriculum, saying the course material was too explicit or that it was against Indian culture. For the full story, visit http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP121110.htm

400 Million People Live in "Minefields" – Report: Some 400 million people around the world live and work in what are effectively minefields, at daily risk of death or maiming by cluster bombs, according to a report issued on Wednesday. For details, visit http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L16202333.htm

Burundi – Armed Banditry, Sexual Violence Increasing: Human rights violations, including executions by armed bandits and sexual violence against women and children, have continued in Burundi despite an improvement in the political landscape, a national watchdog has said. For more information, visit http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/18f84cc060b12c166be678c76c5698c7.htm

For more news articles on peace and justice, visit www.alertnet.org

Advocacy Alerts

ONE Campaign: We can be the generation to end world hunger! Too many in the world continue to suffer from poverty, hunger, and disease, and too few are doing anything to stop it. Join the ONE campaign today and urge the United States government to use our resources to help turn the tide against hunger, poverty, and disease. Together, one by one, we can help bring an end to overwhelming global poverty, disease, and hunger. For action ideas and to learn more, see www.one.org, www.elca.org/advocacy/one and www.bread.org

Darfur: More than four months have passed since the original January 1st deadline President Bush set for the Sudanese government to cooperate with efforts to end the genocide and the Sudan has just missed yet another "last chance" deadline. The people of Darfur can't afford any more "last chances" for Sudan. It's time to launch "Plan B!" Urge the White House to enact and enforce the tough sanctions it's been threatening since January without any further delays. To sign the petition and for more details, visit www.savedarfur.org

Make Work "Work:" Increase Minimum Wage: Work must "work" for families, and increasing the minimum wage can help. The House has done its part by passing a bill to increase the minimum wage, and now the issue has moved to the Senate, where a tougher battle is underway. This minimum wage increase for our low-income workers is a moral issue, and it should not be derailed by partisan politics, bad amendments, or delaying tactics. For information on contacting your Senators and other ways you can help, visit www.sojo.net

Justice in the Gulf Coast: The rich have rebuilt in many areas of the Gulf Coast (the casinos, the hotels, restaurants, and the rich people), but those who aren't as wealthy are having great difficulty repairing their house so that is livable! While the federal government neglects its responsibilities, grassroots groups rooted in the Gulf Coast's African-American communities have launched efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast from the ground up. For information on how you can be a part of restoring and rebuilding the Gulf Coast, visit http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3103

Immigration Reform: With Congress on the verge of rewriting our nation's immigration laws, too many of the loudest voices being heard are politicians and pundits who seek to scapegoat immigrant workers, falsely blaming them for many of our nation's social and economic problems. Tell Congress: immigration reform must be fair and compassionate. Visit www.sojo.net for more details.

For more ideas, visit http://www.unitedforpeace.org and www.sojo.net

Resources

Budget Priorities Computer Activity: As the war continues in Iraq, just how much of the US budget is being spent on military responses to conflict and how much for programs like the Peace Corps and other peacemaking initiatives? LPF's widely-praised Budget Priorities activity examines how the US budget is spent and explores the question "What Really Brings Security?" through vivid graphics and informative activities.

The activity and resource guide are available via our website at www.LutheranPeace.org; both are also available on a CD with supplementary resources for $10 ($4-$8 for LPF members). To order your copy, email lpf@ecunet.org or call (206) 720-0313.

Global Directory of Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution Programs: The 7th edition of the Global Directory of Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution programs is now available in print and as a constantly updated online resource. You can order just the book or the database, or both. This comprehensive guide to peace studies and conflict resolution programs profiles over 450 undergraduate, Masters and Doctoral programs, centers and institutes worldwide. For details, visit http://www.peacejusticestudies.org/globaldirectory/

Community News

Seattle, WA - U2Charist and Millennium Development Goals Fair (May 27): Hosted by Church of the Apostles at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral. At the fair, national and local organizations committed to the Millennium Development Goals will offer information and resources related to their organization and the MDGs. For more details or to find out about how your organization can take part, email Sara Collins at sara@apostleschurch.org

Washington, DC – Pentecost 2007: Taking Vision to the Streets (June 3-6): At this Pentecost gathering, we want to move boldly against poverty by calling together new partners and seizing new opportunities for the implementation of our initiative: the Covenant for a New America. The covenant is an anti-poverty platform and vision that calls our elected leaders and political candidates to enact solutions that transcend ideology–that stress both personal and social responsibility and insist that overcoming poverty must become a non-partisan issue and a bi-partisan cause. For more details, visit http://go.sojo.net/sojourners/events/Pentecost/details.tcl

Middle East – Various Trips sponsored by Middle East Fellowship (Summer and Fall): MEF works with various church partners in the Middle East to undertake peacebuilding and advocate nonviolence in all sectors of the region. This year there are a number of opportunities to take part in trips to areas of the Middle East. During the summer, month-long "Cultural Connections" trips will take place in Bethlehem and Damascus . October 19-November 2 there will be a "Holy Land Pilgrimage" for northwest churches. For more details, visit www.middleeastfellowship.org

Tijuana, MX – Developing Hearts that Yearn for Justice (January 08): Speakers will include James Forbes, Richard Rohr, Brian Mclaren, Elsa Tamez, Matthew Fox, and Bishop Samuel Ruiz from Chiapas, Mexico . For more details, contact Bill Radata at twobill@cox.net

Wake Forest, NC – Say No to Torture: The North Carolina Council of Churches is working with NC Stop Torture Now to investigate a CIA-front organization known to operate "torture taxis" to fly people to be tortured outside of the US, as suspects in the "war on terror." A bill allowing a grand jury in NC to investigate the situation there, and forbidding any NC actors from complicity in torture, was heard in the House Judiciary Committee. To find out more about what the NC Council of Churches is doing and how you can help stop torture, visit www.nccouncilofchurches.org.

Wake Forest, NC - Wake Lutheran Peace Fellowship: Wake Lutheran Peace Fellowship has been actively involved with our local CHOICES program. CHOICES is a coalition dedicated to teaching nonviolence and promoting local civilian job opportunities for high school students. They provide an alternative to the active military presence at high schools. They help students to think about their interests, personal strengths, beliefs, and values. CHOICES assists young people as they look at careers, and vocational and educational funding opportunities outside of military service – for example, Job Corps and AmeriCorps – so that they may make informed decisions about their futures. CHOICES has developed a brochure entitled "What's Next After High School" that explores a variety of possible career opportunities.

CHOICES was asked to give guidance to a peace activist in another part of the state. She had tried to distribute information to high school students in her district regarding alternatives to military service on the same basis and to the same extent as military recruiters were being allowed access to students for purposes of recruiting. This person was repeatedly denied access to distribute the information. Just recently there was a successful resolution of a two-year struggle between this dedicated peace activist and her school district when she was finally permitted full and equal access to students in the district's high schools.

CHOICES is making a difference in the lives of students who seek direction as they look at choices after graduation from high school.

Do you know of an upcoming event or other peace-related news in your community? Email lpfyouth@gmail.com with details and I will include it in next month's issue!

Spiritual Reflection

As exclaimed by so many involved in the ONE Campaign and the Millennium Development Goals, we can be the generation to end world hunger, but it will take all of us. The Millennium Development Goals will be achieved, not in the United Nations or even in the halls of Congress, but in the actions of people, individually and in community, who seek peace with justice for each person on God's earth.

The following is an excerpt from Ending Hunger Now: A Challenge to Persons of Faith, by George McGovern, Bob Dole, and Donald E. Messer.

"More Than Random Acts of Kindness"

I know a person who every day prepares two sandwiches for lunch at work. One he eats himself, and the other he gives to the homeless man who sits on the street near his high-rise business complex. I admire his commitment to feeding a hungry person. His family's faithfulness in caring for this individual is commendable, and I am embarrassed by my own lack of systematic personal attention to persons in need.

Without denigrating the sincerity and substance of this genuine and generous approach to sharing, it is yet evident that hunger in the United States and throughout the world requires more than random acts of kindness. However well-intended, this daily gift is a reminder of the disparity of power between the rich and the poor as well as the limits of a society based simply on charity rather than on justice. The right to eat in a world overflowing with God's abundant food ought not to be dependent on random kindness or fortuitous benevolence. No matter how good-hearted the food donor is, the recipient is reduced to five sandwiches a week and none on holidays. Jesus commended the Good Samaritan for his action in providing care for the man who was beaten and left by robbers (Luke 10:25-37). What he did was especially meritorious, considering how priests and Levites were apparently too busy and self-absorbed. Probably they were neither evil people, nor even lacking compassion, but maybe, like me, they tended to be too caught up in their own lives to be concerned about the lives of others. Possibly they were even promoting some grand scheme to save people from abuse along the highways. But in the process they, like some of us, forgot to care for the immediate person in need.

A Good Samaritan in our era must not only give personal attention to the wounded, but be committed to finding practical personal and political ways of preventing highway muggings. When it comes to ending hunger in our time, Good Samaritans must not only share something specific and personal, but also be involved socially and politically. Only then can love and justice appropriately be expressed. As television journalist and social commentator Bill Moyers observes:

Charity is commendable; everyone should be charitable. But justice aims to create a social order in which, if individuals choose not to be charitable, people still don't go hungry, unschooled, or sick without care. Charity depends on the vicissitudes of whim and personal wealth; justice depends on commitment instead of circumstance. Faith-based charity provides crumbs from the table; faith-based justice offers a place at the table.